Sports reporting is usually considered safer than actually being on the field itself. But as a Fox Sports reporter has found out in the ongoing NFL season, one could actually be in harm's way while doing one's job --even if it's something as mundane as reporting from the sideline.

While covering the game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, the Ohio State marching band started going in her direction. Pam Oliver had to avoid a trumpeter going between her and the camera, then a trombonist almost hit her.

"Really?" Oliver asked the camera after the danger had passed -- literally.

Oliver is generally considered a tough cookie by her colleagues. On Aug 18, while doing a warm-up report on a preseason game between the Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants, she was hit by an errant pass by backup quarterback Chandler Hamish. She just laughed it off and did the rest of the game, earning praise from her employer Fox Sports, who said she was a "trooper".

"I didn't want to be wimpy," Oliver explained.

Wimpy or not, the winsome sports journalist found out that she had sustained a concussion, telling the New York Daily News that she had to spend five days in a darkened room at home to recover. She later wondered how NFL players deal with concussions game in, game out.

"Players don't want to be reminded about concussions. They don't want to be known as the guy who went down with one ... I start wondering how these guys go back to getting hit, taking all the punishment, a week or two later."

The NFL agreed to a settlement on Aug 29, paying $765 million to more than 4,500 former players who claimed that it did not acknowledge the link between concussions and long-term brain damage. The settlement includes payouts to players who were injured or committed suicide as a result of brain injury, research, and medical examinations.